Food Banks “Panicking” Over Demand Following Welfare Cut

Volunteers working for food banks are “panicking” over the demand they are likely to face later this month from Americans on food stamps who have seen their benefits slashed.

From today, $5 billion will be wiped off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as a result of a planned stimulus withdrawal. Almost 50 million Americans who are supported by the program, 21 million of them added to the rolls since 2008, will suffer an average loss of $36 dollars a month, which equates to a deficit of about one week of meals per month.

The impact of the cut won’t really begin to be felt until three weeks into the month of November since that’s when most people have typically exhausted their food stamp credit.

According to Margaret Purvis, the CEO of the largest food bank in America, members of her Food Bank for New York City organization, are “panicking” over the decrease in benefits, fearing a rush of hungry Americans
“We’re telling everyone to make sure that you are prepared for longer lines,” Purvis told NBC News.

Purvis invoked the threat of the food stamp cut causing unrest earlier this week when she told Salon.com, “If you look across the world, riots always begin typically the same way: when people cannot afford to eat food.”
Her comments were echoed by Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, who stated, “It’s going to send people into a charitable system that’s already overwhelmed and screaming for help itself.”